Semi-Final 1 University Challenge

Christmas University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

TOY TRAIN HORN TOOTS

Hello. 14 teams of alumni from British universities and colleges

have taken part in this little seasonal contest.

Ten of them have now bowed out.

They can sit happily at home, munching the last of the mince pies,

tut-tutting and muttering, "Fancy not knowing that,"

as they watch the four teams left in the semifinals.

Whichever team wins tonight will take the first place in the final.

Now, accidentally leaning on your buzzer

and saying the first thing that comes into your head

isn't a tactic we recommend in this competition,

but it served the team from Manchester University well enough

on at least one occasion in their first-round match.

Happily, though, it was amidst an impressive general knowledge

displayed in the more conventional manner.

It earned them 195 points against the University of East Anglia

who opted to score...rather fewer. LAUGHTER

The team comprises a comedy writer and performer

who proved effectively buzzer-happy in that first match,

a writer and screenwriter whose credits include

the films In The Loop and Four Lions

and a memorable contribution to the Black Mirror series.

He made his debut as a novelist in 2015.

Their captain is a campaigner on issues of health and equality

and, as such, has served as an adviser

to government departments and the NHS.

And fourthly, a barrister who presides over cases

in a television courtroom on ITV.

Let's meet the Manchester team again.

Hello, I'm Lucy Porter,

and I studied English between '91 and '94.

Hi, I'm Jesse Armstrong,

and I graduated in 1995 in American Studies.

And this is their captain.

Hi, I'm Christine Burns,

I came up to Manchester in 1972 and left in 1976

with a first and a Masters degree in Computer Science.

Hi, I'm Rob Rinder,

I graduated with my first degree in the 1990s at Manchester

in Politics and Modern History.

APPLAUSE

Now, the team from the University of Sheffield

also had an impressive first-round match

and scored 185 points against Aberdeen University's 90,

so we could be in for a close match tonight.

Their team includes a prolific sports writer and broadcaster

based in Madrid.

He earned a doctorate from Sheffield

with a thesis on Catholicism, War and the Foundation of Franco-ism

which was published in 2010.

Secondly, an editor and novelist

who comprises one half of the Nicci French writing partnership

known for their psychological thrillers.

Their captain is an academic at the University of Gloucestershire.

As a biologist with a penchant for insects,

he's a prolific broadcaster and presenter of documentaries.

And their fourth member is an architect

who specialised in self-build projects.

She's taught at the Birmingham School of Architecture

and was the first female president

of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Let's meet the Sheffield team again.

Hello, I'm Sid Lowe,

and I graduated from Sheffield in 1998.

Hello, I'm Nicci Gerrard, and I did an MA in Sheffield in the 1980s.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Adam Hart, I graduated in 2001 with a PhD in Zoology.

I'm Ruth Reed, I qualified as an architect from Sheffield in 1982.

APPLAUSE

OK, you all know the rules, so let's just crack on with it.

Finger on the buzzers - here's your first starter for ten.

December 30, 2015 marked the 150th anniversary

of the birth in Bombay of which poet and novelist?

Given the first name Joseph, he's usually known by his...

Kipling.

It is Rudyard Kipling, yes.

-APPLAUSE

-Well done.

OK, Manchester, the first set of bonuses go to you.

They're on British writers talking about awards.

Firstly, for five,

"Oh, Christ!" was the response of which Iranian-born British author

on being told that she had won

the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007?

Oh, it's...

-Any idea?

-Not Azar Nafisi.

Arundhati Roy, she's Indian...

-Come on, let's have it, please.

-You have one.

-No, it's not her.

-No?

Oh, well...

Can you give it us if we say we definitely know

and we'll remember shortly?

This is what happens when you're no longer a student -

you know it but you just can't get it out or remember it.

No, it's Doris Lessing.

Secondly, "I would really like to have had the guts and the energy

"to write about people having battles with the DHSS,

"but I'm an arty person -

"I write overblown, purple, self-indulgent prose."

Which author said that?

She won the James Tait Black Award for Fiction in 1984

for her novel Nights At The Circus.

Oh, erm, Angela Carter.

-Angela Carter.

-Correct.

"It has come too late,"

was the response of which British writer born in 1890

on winning in 1967

both the Royal Society of Literature Award and the WH Smith Award

for her novel the Wide Sargasso Sea?

Jean Rhys.

-Jean Rhys.

-Correct.

10 points for this. APPLAUSE

Greensleeves, Beauty of Babylon,

Lord Lambourne and Winter Banana,

the colour of the latter being described as

a striking waxy pink over green-yellow,

are varieties of which fruit?

Plum?

Anyone like to buzz from Manchester? You may not confer.

-Apple.

-Apples is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on a deciduous tree, Manchester.

What is the common name of fraxinus excelsior?

It has pinnate leaflets comprising six to 12 opposite pairs

with an additional terminal leaflet at the end

and bears fruit known as keys.

Ash?

-Anybody else?

-I've got no idea.

-Ash.

-The European Ash is correct.

-Well done.

Ash is often accompanied by a hazel understory

providing a habitat for which protected rodents

of the genus Muscardinus?

That's...squirrels? Do you think?

Protected...

Muscardinus.

-Don't know.

-No.

-Red squirrel?

-No, it's the dormouse.

-Oh.

And finally, ash trees are used for nesting

by which general type of raptor

belonging to the order Strigiformes?

What raptors are there?

-I mean...

-Hawk.

-..there's the hawk.

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

We're going to say hawk.

-No, it's owls.

-Oh.

Ten points for this -

the name of which European city may precede school

to denote a group of linguists established in 1920s...

Vienna?

No, you lose five points.

..a group of linguists established in 1926

and Spring when indicating a period of liberalisation

that ended in August 1968?

-Prague.

-Prague is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses on

the 19th-century mathematician and computer pioneer Ada Lovelace.

Firstly, the Dictionary of National Biography notes that

Ada was educated to be a mathematician and a scientist

because her mother feared that

she might turn out to be a poet like her father - who was he?

THEY DISCUSS IN WHISPERS

Are we going for that? Byron?

-Byron.

-Correct.

Of which of Charles Babbage's devices did Ada write,

"It weaves algebraical patterns

"just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves"?

It remained partially built on his death in 1871.

THEY DISCUSS IN WHISPERS

The Difference Engine.

No, it's the Analytical Engine.

Thirdly, Ada described how the Analytical Engine

could be programmed to compute numbers

defined by the exponential generating function.

These numbers are named after which Swiss mathematician who died in 1705?

You need only give me his surname.

THEY DISCUSS IN WHISPERS

-Swiss...

-Swiss mathematician...

-What are we saying?

-Poisson? Was it Poisson?

-Just go for that.

-Poisson.

No, it's Bernoulli.

We're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter you will see a map

representing, with a degree of simplification,

the major journeys made by a historical figure

200 years ago this year.

For ten points, I want you to name that historical figure.

Napoleon.

Napoleon Bonaparte is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

2015 saw the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's so-called Hundred Days

in which he returned to power following exile in Elba,

fought the Seventh Coalition of powers mobilised to oppose him,

was ultimately defeated at Waterloo and exiled to St Helena.

For your bonuses, you're going to see

three flags of Britain's allies in the Seventh Coalition -

five points for each you can identify.

Firstly.

No, I don't know.

Austria, Hungarian...

-Austria-Hungary.

-THEY LAUGH

Prussia.

-We're going to go with...Austria?

-Let's say Prussia.

-No, I don't think it's Austria

-Prussia?

-Yeah.

We'll say Prussia.

No, that's Portugal. Secondly.

-It looks German.

-THEY DISCUSS IN WHISPERS

-German?

-Hannover? Prussia?

-Let's say Prussia again.

-Yeah.

We'll say Prussia again.

No, that's the Habsburg Empire or the Austrian Empire.

And finally.

-That's Prussia.

-Yeah.

-Prussia?

-Given we've had the Habsburg, yes.

-THEY LAUGH

-Yeah, Prussia.

-Yes, that's correct. Well done.

-You got there in the end.

-Phew!

-APPLAUSE

Bound to be one of them, wasn't it? LAUGHTER

Right, ten points for this -

in church architecture, what four-letter term

derives from the Greek for arch

and denotes a large, usually semi-circular recess

behind the altar?

-Apse.

-Apse is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses, Sheffield, on cross-dressing

in Shakespeare's plays. LAUGHTER

Firstly, Balthazar, supposedly a lawyer in the trial of Antonio

in The Merchant of Venice

is a cross-dressing guise adopted by which character?

-Do you know?

-He's like...

He's like The Prince something.

The Prince of...

-..Morocco? Go for that.

-Prince of Morocco?

-Go for it.

Prince of Morocco.

The Prince of Morocco? LAUGHTER

Doesn't sound very cross-dressing to me.

-No, it's Portia.

-Oh!

-SHE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY

Secondly, in which of Shakespeare's comedies

does Rosalind, the daughter of a duke,

disguise herself as a shepherd called Ganymede?

-Rosalind is in As You Like It.

-As You Like It?

-As You Like It.

-Correct.

In which of Shakespeare's plays does the shipwrecked Viola

disguise herself as a eunuch called Cesario

in order to become a page in the Illyrian court of Duke Orsino?

-That is Twelfth Night.

-Is it Twelfth Night?

-Twelfth Night.

-Well done. Ten points for this -

496 and 28 are examples of what class of number

defined as positive integers that are the sum of their proper divisors?

-Perfect numbers.

-Perfect numbers is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

That puts you onto level pegging

and you get a set of bonuses on

discoveries described as the Breakthrough of the Year

by Science magazine,

the journal of the US Association for the Advancement of Science.

Firstly, what observation about the nature of the universe

did Science magazine declare the Breakthrough of 1998?

Nature of the universe, 1998?

-The universe is expanding.

-What?

-The earth's expanding.

-That was earlier, wasn't it?

That was much earlier, wasn't it?

-We've known that for a long time.

-Yeah.

-Come on.

-What are we going to go for?

-We're going to go with you,

whatever you said because you're the scientist.

Expanding?

No, that's been known since about the 1920s.

It's the expansion is accelerating. ADAM GROANS

The Breakthrough of 2010 was a micromechanical resonator

that had been placed in the superposition of oscillating states

prompting Science magazine to call it

the first example of what form of machine?

Nanomachine?

-A kind of...

-Go for it.

A nanomachine?

No, it's a quantum machine.

And finally, the discovery of which subatomic particle

was hailed as the Breakthrough of 2012?

-Higgs boson?

-I think...

-Higgs boson, is it?

-Yes.

-That was later, was it?

-Higgs boson.

-Correct.

You go to the lead. Ten points at stake for this.

Winning him critical and commercial success

as well as a special Pulitzer prize in 1992,

what is the title of Art Spiegelman's graphic novel in which...

-Maus.

-Maus is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You retake the lead, Manchester,

and you get a set of bonuses on the terminology of rugby union.

All three answers are four-letter words.

Firstly, for five, what is defined as, quote,

a phase of play where one or more players from each team

who are on their feet in physical contact

close around the ball on the ground?

Maul.

-A maul.

-No, it's a ruck.

Secondly, what begins when, quote,

a player carrying the ball is held by one or more opponents

and one of more of the ball carrier's team mates

bind on the ball carrier.

-That's a maul.

-That's a maul.

That is a maul, yes.

Lastly, what term denotes the player

who wears the number four or five jersey?

It refers to the function they perform in the second row of a scrum.

-Is it the prop?

-Er, yeah.

-Yeah.

-The prop?

-Yeah.

We think it's a prop.

No, they're in the front row - it's a lock.

Right, we're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you're going to hear a piece of popular music.

For 10 points, I want the name of the band performing, please.

# Oh, up, down, turn around

# Please don't let me hit the ground... #

-New Order.

-New Order is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

In 1982 New Order's Temptation topped John Peel's Festive 50,

an alternative Christmas chart voted for by listeners of his Radio 1 show.

Initially a poll of listener's all-time favourite songs,

from 1982 onwards it became

a rundown of listeners' favourite tracks of the year.

Your bonuses are three more number ones

from that second era of the Festive 50,

and this time I want both the band performing

and the year in which the track topped Peel's poll.

Firstly, for five.

ROCK MUSIC PLAYS

-It's Nirvana.

-It's Nirvana.

-That will have been '90...

-God, when did he die? He died in...

-THEY DISCUSS IN HUSHED VOICES

# ..and to pretend

# She's over bored and self-assured... #

Do you know...

It's '90s.

Do you think it was something like '84...?

No, it was later than that.

-'90s? Do you think it might be '90s?

-Later.

-So, Nirvana...

-Let's go '92 and...

-'92.

-Their last one was '93.

Right, our conclusion is Nirvana, 1992.

Bad luck. It was Nirvana, of course, Smells Like Teen Spirit,

-but it was 1991.

-Oh!

Secondly.

# You shut your mouth

# How can you say... #

-THEY DISCUSS IN HUSHED VOICES

-# I go about things the wrong way?

# I am human and I need to be loved... #

-..'83 to '85.

-# Just like everybody else does. #

Or maybe '86.

So, we're saying The Smiths, '80...what?

-I don't know. You go.

-'84.

-The Smiths, 1984.

-Correct.

-Yes!

And finally...

-POP MUSIC PLAYS

-Oh...

# She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge

# She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College,

-# That's where I... #

-Later?

-Common People.

# ..caught her eye... #

THEY DISCUSS IN HUSHED VOICES

Are we going to go for 2000?

-Sorry, what was the name?

-Pulp.

THEY DISCUSS IN HUSHED VOICES

-What year do you think?

-Don't know.

-'90s.

-Later '90s? '96, '97?

-I was at university...

-Let's have it, please.

Pulp, 1997.

-No, it was Pulp, 1995.

-Oh!

Right, 10 points for this - give two acronyms,

one of which can be formed by adding a final letter to the other.

They denote, respectively,

a drama school founded by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree

and a system for detecting the location of objects

from pulses of electric...

-RADA and radar.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the artists Gilbert & George, Sheffield.

After meeting at St Martin's School of Art in 1967,

one of Gilbert & George's earliest collaborative works

saw them as singing sculptures dressed in suits with bronzed faces

dancing to which song associated with Flanagan and Allen?

Flanagan and Allen? Did they do anything...?

I keep thinking Down By The... No.

-Was it Underneath The Arches?

-Yeah.

-Underneath The Arches.

-Correct.

In 2005 Gilbert & George represented the UK at the Biennale exhibition

held in which Italian city?

-Venice.

-Is it Venice Biennale?

-Venice.

-Correct.

Which feminist writer apparently upset the pair

when she declared that the only way they could complete their oeuvre

was by dying in unison?

-I don't think...

-Germaine Greer.

-Yeah, Germaine Greer.

-Germaine Greer?

-Germaine Greer.

-It was, yes.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this...

Back on level pegging.

This'll give one of you the lead if you get it.

"Why is it that giving guns is so easy,

"but giving books is so hard?

"Why is it that making tanks is so easy,

"but building schools is so difficult?"

Who said those words in her Nobel speech in December 2014?

-Malala...

-Yousafzai, yes.

-..Yousafzai.

-Well done.

-Sorry.

-APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses, Manchester, on Alfred Hitchcock.

Alfred Hitchcock is reputed to have said,

"When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character,

"I say, 'It's in the script.'

"If he says, 'But what's my motivation?'

"I say your..." what?

-Money.

-Fired?

Yeah, you're fired.

Isn't it your money, your wages?

-Your pay cheque?

-Your pay cheque.

-Yeah.

-Your pay cheque.

-Yes, or salary, yes.

Give the three words that complete this observation by Hitchcock -

"Television has brought back murder into the home..."

-"I love it."

-THEY LAUGH

That would be him, wouldn't it?

-"It was there already."

-Any better? Any other ideas?

-It's three words.

-Yeah. I love it.

No, it's "..where it belongs." LAUGHTER

And finally, which three words complete this Hitchcock observation -

"For me, the cinema is not a slice of life but a..."

Oh, it's... No.

-"..a slice of death"?

-Yeah, that sounds nice.

-Yeah.

"..a slice of death."

No, it's "..piece of cake."

10 points for this -

what pervasive idea in the Western cultural tradition

did the historian Sidney Pollard describe as,

"The assumption that a pattern of change exists

"in the history of mankind

"that it consists of irreversible...".

The Whig.

No, you lose five points.

"..that it consists of irreversible changes in one direction only

"and that this direction is towards improvement."

NICCI WHISPERS

You may not confer.

-Oh! Sorry, I forgot.

-It's all right, don't worry.

Just buzz if you know...otherwise...

-Progress.

-Progress is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on zoology, Sheffield.

Humans are classified in the genus Homo.

In which order are they classified?

OK. Hold on, let's not get this wrong. OK...

HE WHISPERS TO HIMSELF

-Primates.

-Correct.

One of the characteristics of primates is an opposable pollex.

What is the pollex?

-The thumb.

-No, that's a hallux. Pollex is a big toe.

-No...

-SHE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY

The thumb. Correct.

You've got an opposable big toe?

-That's very interesting.

-Yes...

-LAUGHTER

Which family of primates survives in the wild

only on the island of Madagascar?

Lemurs.

-Lemurs.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

We're going to take a second picture round.

For your picture starter, you'll see a photograph of a historical figure -

ten points if you can identify him.

-Amundsen.

-It is Amundsen, yes.

APPLAUSE

In 1911 Amundsen was, of course,

the leader of the first expedition to reach the South Pole.

Your picture bonuses are

photographs of three more notable polar explorers.

Five points for each you can identify.

Firstly, for five.

-I think that's Shackleton.

-..think it's Shackleton.

Shackleton.

That is Ernest Shackleton. Secondly.

THEY DISCUSS IN WHISPERS

-I've got no idea.

-Could be Scott or Oates.

-No.

-It's too...

-It's too early for...

-What should we go for?

Oates.

No, that's Peary, usually more associated with the North Pole.

Finally.

-That's Scott.

-Yeah, that must be Scott.

-Yeah.

-Scott.

-That is Captain Scott, yes.

APPLAUSE Right, ten points for this -

born in 1955 in Kirkcaldy in Fife,

which crime writer's most notable characters

include the journalist Lindsay Gordon,

the private investigator Kate Brannigan and...

-Val McDermid.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Sheffield, are on the 1980s.

In 1981 who became the first woman to serve on

the United States Supreme Court?

Oh, was it not...

..Elizabeth...

Was it Elizabeth Long? Just go for something.

-Elizabeth...?

-Elizabeth Long. I don't know...

-Nominate Nicci.

-Whoa.

-THEY LAUGH

To make a fool of my... Elizabeth Long.

No, it was Sandra Day O'Connor.

Secondly, in 1988 who became the first female leader

of a Muslim nation in modern history

when her party won the largest number of seats

in Pakistan's National Assembly?

-Benazir Bhutto?

-Yes...

-THEY DISCUSS IN HUSHED VOICES

-Benazir Bhutto.

-Correct.

Known as the Queen of Soul, who in 1987 became the first woman

to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

-Is that Aretha Franklin?

-Aretha Franklin?

Aretha Franklin. I think it was Aretha Franklin.

-Aretha Franklin.

-It was Aretha Franklin, yes.

We are under four minutes to go

and ten points at stake for this starter question.

In genetics, what letter is the designation of a sex chromosome

occurring in both sexes of...

-X.

-X is correct.

You get a set of bonuses, this time, Manchester, on a playwright.

French Without Tears and The Deep Blue Sea

are works by which playwright born 1911?

-That is Rattigan, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Rattigan?

-Rattigan.

-Correct.

First performed in 1948,

which play by Rattigan concerns a schoolmaster who receives

a copy of a 19th-century translation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon

-as a present from a pupil?

-The Browning Version.

-The Browning version.

-Correct.

Rattigan's play Ross,

first performed in 1960 with Alec Guinness as the title character,

is based on the life of which literary and military figure?

-I don't know.

-Don't know.

-No?

-We don't know.

-It was Lawrence of Arabia.

10 points for this -

A New System Of Chemical Philosophy was a work of 1808

by which natural philosopher,

a leading member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society?

Best-known for his pioneering work on atomic theory,

he gives his name to a type of colour blindness.

-Dalton.

-Dalton is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on terms

that share the same Latin prefix, Sheffield.

Also denoted by a Greek-derived word meaning seeing for oneself,

what two-word hyphenated term refers to a specific type of examination?

-Seeing for oneself? It's not viva...?

-Viva...

Is it viva voce?

-Doesn't that mean speaking?

-Viva...

Seeing for yourself would be like viva...

Come on. Let's have it, please.

-Viva voce.

-Uh, no, it's post-mortem.

A word corresponding to the English 'by', 'with', 'for' or 'from'

that is placed after the noun rather than before it,

as, for example, in the Uralic languages and in Hindi.

I literally don't know what he's just said.

-No, I don't...

-THEY LAUGH

SHE SPEAKS IN A HUSHED VOICE

A word placed after 'by', 'for', 'from...

Come on. Let's have it.

We don't really understand the question.

LAUGHTER It's postposition.

And finally, a term used to describe

the works and style of painters

such as Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin.

Postimpressionism?

-Postimpressionism.

-It has to be. Go on.

-Postimpressionism.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

10 points for this -

the words Echinacea, panacea and nausea

in their standard dictionary spellings

end with which two letters?

-E-A.

-Correct.

You get a set of bonuses on the names of elements, Sheffield.

Elements including yttrium, erbium and terbium

are named after Ytterby,

the mining village where they were first discovered,

in which European country?

-It must be something like Italy.

-Sounds Italian.

-It sounds Italian.

-What's it called?

-Ytterby.

-Ytterby.

-Spain?

-Doesn't sound like Spanish to me.

-I think Italy.

-Italy.

No, it's Sweden.

Secondly, which element in the periodic table

is named after the daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology?

-Oh...

-Tantalum.

Tantalum? Tantalum.

No, it's niobium, after Niobe.

And finally, one of the rarest gases in the earth's atmosphere,

which element derives its name for the Greek for hidden?

Oh, God. Hidden...

-What's the...?

-Xeon?

Come on, let's have it, please.

-Xenon.

-No, it's krypton.

Ten points for this -

meaning black knife or hidden knife,

what name is given to the small dagger that's worn in hose

in traditional male Scottish Highland dress?

Dirk.

No, you lose five points.

Manchester, one of you buzz.

Er, it's a kirk?

No, that's a church. It's a sgian-dhu.

10 points for this -

GONG SOUNDS And at the gong...

APPLAUSE ..Manchester have 105,

but Sheffield have 160.

AUDIENCE CHEER AND APPLAUD

Well, bad luck, Manchester.

You stormed away,

but then they pulled back pretty steadily, I thought.

We shall have to say goodbye but thank you for joining us -

you've been a very entertaining team to have this Christmas,

and Sheffield, we look forward to seeing you in the final.

Well done. Congratulations.

I hope you can join us next time for the next semifinal,

but until then, it's goodbye from Manchester University...

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

-..it's goodbye from Sheffield University...

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

-..and it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

APPLAUSE